


Shadows

by fluffyfitz



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Family Fluff, Flashbacks, Fluff, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25767049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffyfitz/pseuds/fluffyfitz
Summary: Fitz comforts his daughter after she wakes from a nightmare. Takes place during "we had time"
Relationships: Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Comments: 4
Kudos: 55





	Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> I was having a BBG FS breakdown so I vented a little bit its really short and is kind of bad but its whatever.

“Dad?” Diana cried out into the darkness from her room on board the Zephyr, tears streaming down her face. Silence. “Daddy!?” she called out again, louder this time. She pulls her blanket up to the tip of her nose, giving her a sense of protection. Her eyes wide open in fear, she peered through the small crack in her door, which let in the tiniest bit of light from the electronics outside. Slow, heavy footsteps made their way to her door. She jumped as the light outside her doorway flickered on, casting dancing shadows along the walls of her bedroom. With a slow creak, the door to her room opened, letting the light from the hallway shine in, killing off the scary shadows.

“Hey, Monkey,” Fitz said with a smile, peeking his head through the doorway. “Everything alright?” he asked, swinging the door wide open, standing in the doorframe, the light casting a shadow over his face. Diana trembled, shaking her head. Still with a loving smile on his face, he walked over to the foot of her bed, sitting down next to his daughter. The mattress sunk a little as he sat. He reached his arm out, cupping her face in his hand, wiping the tears away with his thumb. “What’s wrong?” he asked her in a warm voice that made her crying stop.

“I’m scared. I had a nightmare,” she replied, her voice shaking with fear. The light from outside shined bright on her father’s face, revealing his bright blue, ocean eyes, curly hair, and scratchy beard. 

“It’s okay,” Fitz said, placing his hand on Diana’s back, slowly moving it around in circular motions. “I’m here.”

“Do you have nightmares, Daddy?” she asked, lowering the covers back down to her chest. He paused for a moment before slowly nodding, smiling down at his daughter. He smiled, but his eyes told a different story. She could sense the pain and sadness that flooded his eyes in response to the question. She felt bad for asking.

“Not that much anymore,” he said. “But, I used to have them almost every night.” Unconsciously, he stopped rubbing Diana’s back, closing his hand into a fist, digging his fingernails into his palm as his mind slowly started slipping to the darkest points in his life, places he tried his hardest not to revisit. Ward’s betrayal. His brain injury. Maveth. The Framework. Finding out he died… He quickly snapped out of it, looking back down to his daughter, smiling once again. “Sorry,” he said in a quiet voice, resting his arm over his daughter.

“Can you tell me about them?” Diana asked. She didn’t really want to ask him to relive his nightmares, but she wanted him to stay by her side for a little longer. Fitz took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Looking up to the shelves hanging from the light blue walls, his eyes focused on a dissected bug. It triggered something inside of him, sending a shiver down his spine. His mind flashed back to the Framework. The torture. The dissections. The death. The nightmares that came out of it.

“Only if you pinky promise to tell me about yours after,” Fitz said with a smirk, holding out his pinky. Diana lifted her hand outward, wrapping her tiny finger around her father’s. Fitz couldn’t help but smile as he shook his daughter’s dainty pinky. He was in a better place now. Jemma and Diana, they were his home now. His life. His family. He never thought that he would get the chance to lie down and just… live. “Alright, scooch,” he said, elbowing Diana. She groaned as she sat up, moving sideways to give her father enough room to sit down next to her. Fitz swung his legs onto the bed, sitting right beside his daughter, his back against the bed’s headboard. She laid her head down onto his lap, looking up at him as she waited for him to tell his story. He stared at his daughter’s face for a few moments, twirling a strand of her hair around his finger before he began talking.

“It started off just like any normal dream,” he began telling her. “I was walking down a hallway in the Lighthouse, looking for Mum. I walked and I walked and I walked, but I wasn’t going anywhere and the hallways were getting darker as I went on,” he lifted his eyes from Diana, staring off into nothing as he went deeper into the memory. “I started running down the hallway, yelling for your mother, when suddenly a man in a black suit appeared in front of me. He looked just like me, but he wasn’t. He was the shadow version of me: The Doctor,” he paused, staring into the void of nothing. “And that was it,” he finished, pulling himself out of the memory. But that wasn’t it. The nightmare went further than that. Darker than that. He didn’t want to scare Diana, especially this late at night. “You’re turn,” he said, stroking her hair.

“Do I have to?” she asked. 

“Of course not,” Fitz replied. “But I think saying it, getting it out in the open, will help make it better.” Diana bit her lip, hesitating.

“It was about you and Mommy,” she said after a minute, breaking the silence. “We were on the Zephyr, eating lunch, when the bad guys came. The robots.”

“Chronicoms?” Fitz asked. “Like what uncle Enoch is?” She nodded. “And then?” 

“They took you,” Diana said shakily, her eyes quickly filling up with tears.. “I don’t want you to be taken!” she sobbed, jumping into Fitz’s arms, burying her face into his shoulder, his beard tickling her face.

“Shh, shh, shh. It’s okay, it’s okay.” Fitz whispered, rocking her in his arms as he stroked the back of her head. He held on tight, not wanting to let go. A single tear dropped down Fitz’s cheek. They sat there for several minutes before Diana’s crying died down. “Look at me,” Fitz said softly, pulling her back and looking into her eyes. “I can’t promise you that we will both always be by your side,” he said, combing his fingers through her hair and wiping her tears dry. “But I can promise you that we will always come back to you, no matter what. Just like Mommy and I always come back to each other. Always. We will never leave you, Monkey.” She slowly nodded before laying her head on her father’s shoulder, silently sobbing.

After ten more minutes, fresh tears finally stopped falling onto Fitz’s shirt. She was asleep, still held tight in Fitz’s arms. He wanted to go back to Jemma. He didn’t know how much time they had left together before she had to leave, forgetting both Fitz and Diana. But he didn’t want to wake his daughter from her peaceful slumber. So he sat there, in the silence of the night, watching the light from the outside fight against the dancing shadows in the corner of the room.


End file.
